Making poisons is a bit like being a mad scientist in Skyrim. If you want to take a more rational and safer method of making poisons, you can find the right books or notes that contain the recipe. If you don’t want to go around reading everything you can pick up, there is a second way to learn how to make poisons that is faster, although it could mean wasting money on items that result in failed experiments.

Steps

Method1

Making Poisons by Experimenting

1

Locate an Alchemy Lab and interact with it. These are located all across Skyrim, with at least one in every village (usually located in the taverns).

You can also have them installed in your homes once you start buying real estate. Having them in your home is extremely useful, although using the ones in inns and alchemist shops means that you can buy some ingredients. Then again, you can store ingredients in your home, so the choice of where you want to make your poisons is yours.

2

Go over the poisons. Read the potions and poisons for each ingredient to see what you already know about a particular item.

For example, selecting Blisterwort will show you any potions and poisons you have successfully crafted (Frenzy and Restore Health), and for those that you have not discovered it will read UNKNOWN.

3

Craft a poison. Select “Ingredients” then choose at least two of any ingredients you have on hand.

You may want to use more than two because it increases your chances of a successful experiment.

The more times you succeed, the more information you learn about each ingredient, which begins to take out a lot of the guesswork from your experiments.

Method2

Making Poisons by the Book

1

Locate the recipe for a poison. These are generally found on notes, but occasionally you may stumble across a book that gives you the information you need to make a poison.

Notes and books are located across Skyrim, so you will need to keep your eyes open for sheets of paper and hardbound books to make a poison without any problems. Of course, you don’t get to choose what is in the items you find either.

Some shops also sell recipes. If you want to use this method to make your poisons, make sure you keep a good bit of coin on hand.

2

Read the recipe for the poison.

3

Check your ingredients. Open your inventory and check to make sure that you have all of the ingredients specified on the recipe.

For example, Poison of Damage Stamina requires at least two ingredients (Bone Meal and Spider Egg). If you use a third ingredient, you can make the poison stronger, but you need at least two to create the poison.

4

Locate an Alchemy Lab and interact with it. These are located all across Skyrim, with at least one in every village (usually located in the taverns).

5

Scroll down the list under Ingredients to the name of the poison you want to make. Every recipe you encounter and every successful experiment will appear under ingredients. They are spaced out so you can see when you have created every available poison and potion.

Poisons begin with negative words, like Damage.

6

Click “Craft” to make the poison. You can repeat this action as long as you have the necessary ingredients to continually make the poison.

7

Clear the selection if you want to make something else, otherwise, exit the crafting tab. You will be asked to make sure you want to leave before you can actually move away from the lab.

Method3

Making Poisons You’ve Made Before

1

Locate an Alchemy Lab and interact with it. These are located all across Skyrim, with at least one in every village (usually located in the taverns).

2

Scroll down and see if you have the necessary ingredients to make the poison. If the particular poison is grayed-out, it means you do not have the necessary items to make it. If it looks active, proceed to the next step.

3

Select the ingredients you would like to use. If you use three ingredients, your poison will be stronger, but you may not want to use the rarer ingredients like that.

4

Click “Craft” to make the poison. You can repeat this action as long as you have the necessary ingredients to continually make the poison.

5

Clear the selection if you want to make something else, otherwise, exit the crafting tab. You will be asked to make sure you want to leave before you can actually move away from the lab.

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Video

Tips

Ingredients are found all over Skyrim. From the fish in the water and plants in the woods to mushrooms growing on trees and chickens’ eggs still in the nest, you have to keep an eye out to find most of the ingredients you will need.

You can buy ingredients from shops, inns, and random hunters and fishers around Skyrim; find ingredients in the wild or in camps or towns; or kill creatures to get ingredients.

Check sacks, barrels, drawers, and tables to see if they contain ingredients.

Things like Canis Root and Deathbell can be found in the wild. Keep an eye out for different types of mushrooms as well.

Chicken’s Eggs are in towns where you see chickens (look for their nests).

When you can collect something, the game will show you what it is and give you the option to collect it.

You can learn more about ingredients by tasting them. Just go into your inventory, select “Ingredients,” then select your ingredient. It will tell you one thing about your ingredient and will fill that purpose in under the ingredient.

Be careful when tasting ingredients; you may end up poisoning yourself. You will find out when you exit the menu and your vision blurs.

One of the skills you can learn, Experimenter, lets you learn multiple effects when you taste an ingredient.